Treat Your Elders Well – 1 Timothy 5:17-25

As a professor at a seminary, I have the great privilege of training men for pastoral ministry. Every year new faces come in, full of excitement and trepidation as they start taking classes to prepare for pastoral ministry. What most of them don’t realize is how dangerous their calling truly is. According to some recent surveys,[1] somewhere between 1,500–1,700 pastors leave the ministry each month. That means on average 50–57 pastors leave the ministry every single day. These studies go on to note several more disturbing statistics:

70% of pastors do not have someone they consider a close friend.

33% of pastors confess having been involved in inappropriate sexual behavior.